Macau GP race report

Race (Sunday November 21st):
Weather: Hot, sunny.
Even before the race, we were missing a competitor. Eric Salignon (ASM
Formule 3), returning to racing after a serious road crash in late summer
this year, crashed out of both qualifying...

Race (Sunday November 21st):
Weather: Hot, sunny.

Even before the race, we were missing a competitor. Eric Salignon (ASM
Formule 3), returning to racing after a serious road crash in late summer
this year, crashed out of both qualifying sessions, and the qualifying
race. The final crash put a crack in the tub of his Dallara, which meant he
would not take part in the Grand Prix (even if the doctors had been
prepared to pass him as fit to race).

It's not unusual for panic to break out on the grid at Macau. There's a
good half hour or so between the formation lap and the race start, and with
such a long and tricky track the potential exists for people to whack a
barrier or wall before they even get to the grid. This year it was the turn
of British Formula Three's runner up, Adam Carroll (Menu Motorsport) to
commit a minor indiscretion. It was made obvious when two of the Menu lads
were seen legging it along the pit lane at high speed just as the
traditional lion dance was about to begin. Ironically, this dance is meant
to bring good luck to the competitors, and ensure a safe race. Clearly,
this time out, it didn't work quite as well as it could have done, though
in the ensuing outbreak of stupidity at least all that actually got wounded
was pride; it could have been an awful lot worse. After a Formula Renault
race in which such arrant stupidity was demonstrated that it beggared
belief, everyone was perhaps inclined to believe the weekend quota of
silliness had been reached (and probably exceeded). Not a bit of it! The
start seemed to go well, at least in comparison to Saturday's qualifying
race, with Nico Rosberg (Opel Team Rosberg) getting the jump on pole man
Lewis Hamilton (Manor Motorsport) into Mandarin, and coming out in the
lead. Hamilton hadn't helped his cause any by being a bit slow off the
line, and Rosberg isn't a man to ignore an opportunity like that when it's
handed to him on a plate. As the two of them pulled away from the pack,
Alexandre Premat (ASM Formule 3) was scuffling with Hamilton's teammate
Robert Kubica for 3rd place.

A little further back, two of Signature's drivers were making themselves
look foolish; James Rossiter and Loïc Duval tangled going into Lisboa for
the first time, and neither of them came out again. That was the end of
both their races. It may be traditional to go off there, but you really
don't want to take your teammate with you.Meanwhile Premat was
investigating the limits a little too closely and whacked the barriers at
Moorish Hill rather smartly. He was able to keep going after striking the
car a glancing blow, but he had a rather nervous time over the next few
minutes. What happened next was enough to put Premat's worries into
perspective however, and to make seasoned F3 watchers shake their heads in
disbelief. Pushing hard to try and open a gap between himself and Hamilton,
Rosberg arrived at Lisboa way too fast with his brakes locked, sideways,
and promptly rammed the Dallara nose first into the barriers. As if that
wasn't incredible enough, Hamilton - who was also pushing way too hard -
couldn't avoid him and was stuck between the stricken Finn and the
barriers. Just for good measure they were briefly joined by Katsuyuki
Hiranaka (Prema Powerteam) and Danny Watts (Hitech Racing). Watts got going
again and was on his way quite quickly, while Hiranaka lost quite a lot of
time getting back on track. Hamilton eventually disentangled himself too,
but Rosberg was out for good. In effect, Premat had just been handed the
lead, and was doing a great job defending it from Kubica, despite whacking
the barrier a second time, and having a very sideways moment at Lisboa next
time around.

In the melee further back, Fabio Carbone (Three Bond Racing) ran into Lucas
di Grassi's gearbox, bending his right front wing rather badly, but seeming
not to lose any speed because of it. The battle to be fastest Brazilian was
hotting up, especially as it seemed Nelson Piquet (Piquet Sports) was now
out of contention, having started from the back. He might well be hauling
his way up the order, but he was not likely to be able to challenge for a
podium position from back there, especially given how things panned out.
The Portuguese contingent was in trouble, in comparison, with Alvaro
Parente (Carlin Motorsport) crashing heavily at the Solitude Esses on the
second lap. The wreckage went everywhere and the officials scrambled the
Safety Car for the first time so that the Carlin car could be removed.
Matteo Cressoni (Ombra) had clearly picked up some debris somewhere, and
the brakes had jammed, so he had to pit. Although he went back out again
soon afterwards, his race was effectively over.

Two laps later, the Safety Car came back in and the race was allowed to
restart, possibly an ill advised move. Green tackled Kubica in a fairly
abrupt manner after Kubica misjudged the restart rather badly. The
Englishman was able to take 2nd from the Pole by the time they reached
Lisboa. This allowed Premat to pull away a little, seemingly non the worse
for his brushes with the barrier, while Carbone was still tigerishly
savaging di Grassi, who wasn't about to give an inch if he didn't have to,
despite the fact that Carbone had broken the diffuser on his rival's car
when he broke his own wing. While Kubica was coming back at Green as his
tyres warmed up again, di Grassi slammed the door on Carbone, and just
behind them Carroll made a wild lunge at Perera and got away with it. That
meant Carbone now had the Menu car looming in his mirrors, so he had to
ease off, to di Grassi's considerable relief. A lap later, Perera took 6th
back from Carroll, leaving the Northern Irishman to fend off teammate
Austin, both of them having a fine run. Further back, Antinucci was still
hacking his way through the field and had gained another couple of places,
with Piquet still following close behind.

A lap later, while Premat pushed hard enough to set the fastest lap of the
race to this point, Kubica was handed his 2nd place back, after Green
picked up a puncture (no doubt caused by crash debris on the track) and ran
wide at Fisherman's Bend, and he had to pit for fresh rubber. We were now
roundabout the halfway mark, and it looked as if the race was settling
down. It wasn't. All hell was about to break loose out there. It started
when Ikeda crashed into the barriers and his car had to be craned away.
While Kubica set the new fastest race lap, Avila went off and made a
dreadful mess of his car at the Solitude Esses. With Jones also involved,
the track was temporarily blocked, and a small car park developed for a
short while as the Australian got going again and Avila was left to wonder
what went wrong with his weekend. The Safety Car was scrambled for the
second time at the end of lap 9. This time the order was Premat, ahead of
Kubica, di Grassi, Carbone, Perera, Carroll, Austin, Quintarelli, Yokomizo
and Antinucci. In 11th was Piquet, ahead of Asmer, Watts, Nakajima,
Hamilton, van der Garde, Tung, Jones, Lee and Hiranaka. 21st was Lei,
temporarily ahead of Green, while Merszei was the last survivor.

Two laps later, the Safety Car pulled in again, but not before Yokomizo had
gone off under Safety Car conditions. Really, you couldn't make this stuff
up. Anyway, the race restarted, and Carbone grabbed the opportunity to pass
di Grassi, though you could see that di Grassi was planning a counter
attack at the first possible moment. Meanwhile Carroll took another run at
Perera, and very nearly lost it big time going into Lisboa. He was able to
demonstrate his quite remarkable car control and saved it at the last
moment, earning a round of applause from the gathered press corps.
Hamilton, meanwhile, couldn't hold it all together - trying to pass
Nakajima he ended up in the barriers on the run up to Maternity Bend, while
elsewhere di Grassi was trying to squeeze past Carbone, only to get the
door slammed in his face. However, it was all about to become somewhat
academic. Asmer got into a spin at Police, and Hiranaka, Jones and Tung all
piled in there, along with van der Garde. Now the track was completely
blocked, with cars at a standstill behind them, the drivers having no place
to go. It was utter chaos out there, and the officials did the only thing
possible under the circumstances. With two laps of the official distance
still to run, the red flags were waved, and under FIA regulations the
result was declared as at the end of lap 11.

Premat, the Macau Rookie, had won the race on his and Mercedes' first
attempt, becoming only the third man to win both the Marlboro Masters and
the Macau Grand Prix (the other two being David Coulthard in 1991, and
Takuma Sato in 2001). He was delighted with this result, feeling it made up
for being beaten to the Euro Series title by Green. "To win on my debut in
Macau against the best Formula Three drivers in the world is fantastic.
It's another wonderful experience after my win at the Marlboro Masters and
along with my second place it's just terrific. I have to thank my team for
making this win possible."

Kubica, who predicted that the second row was a better place to be than the
front, was proved right, as he and Premat both started from there. The Pole
was pleased with his result, and di Grassi was overjoyed to be on the
podium after a somewhat disappointing year in British Formula Three.
Carbone was 4th, from Perera, while Carroll and Austin were 6th and 7th,
and brought their cars home completely undamaged, to the surprise of team
boss Mike Baker. Quintarelli was 8th, while Antinucci and Piquet took up
the remaining top ten positions, despite starting from so far back they
could probably not even see the starting lights. Asmer was classified in
11th, from Watts, Nakajima and Hamilton, while van der Garde took 15th,
ahead of Tung, Jones, Lee, Lei and Green. Merszei, Yokomizo and Hiranaka
were the last classified runners.